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International Journalismaffected area. Hu Shuli, founder andmanaging editor of Caijing Magazine,believed the news of SARS involvedissues of government transparency, andthe signficance of these issues meantthat the story had to be reported.In an interview with World PressReview (WPR), Hu Shuli reflected: “Althoughat the time [in February] thedisease was hardly mentioned in anyChinese media, I was quite sure that anepidemic like SARS could hardly becovered up. So I decided to start byreporting about the disease in HongKong. When I saw on the Web site ofthe World Health Organization onMarch 12th that the number of cases inGuangdong had jumped from zero to792, I knew I had real news …. Weassigned a group of four reporters tocover SARS at first and then put anentire desk of 10 people on the reporting.Finally, we put more people on thestory and produced four special weeklyissues on SARS in addition to our normalpublications.” Hu was namedWPR’s international editor of the yearfor her magazine’s probing and comprehensivecoverage of SARS.Another leader of the country’sfringe media is the 21st Century BusinessHerald. On May 1st it published aSARS special edition of about 30pages—normally newspapers only havefour pages. From that point on, theBusiness Herald published investigativestories or editorials about SARS inalmost every issue. On May 8th aneditorial appeared saying that fightingSARS should depend on science andwarning the local government not totake extreme approaches. On May 15thit published a series of investigativereports about the SARS infection situationin Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Hebeiand rural areas of other provinces, analyzingthe problems and solutions ofthe nation’s marginalized rural medicalsystem.Media Coverage in EnglishChina’s news reporting in Englishserves as a window for the outsideworld to understand China. Since itcaters to foreigners, in general, thiscoverage tends to be more open. Oneadvantage of news reporting in Englishis that it can draw on foreign experts’viewpoints, which makes the reportingmore balanced. With SARS, China’smedia in English did probing analysisand sometimes went in front of theChinese news media.In April and May, the English-languageprogram of China Radio International,“People in the Know,” invitedforeign and domestic experts to giveindependent analysis of topics relatedto SARS. On April 14th, at a time ofincreasing public panic in Beijing,“People in the Know” interviewed DavidRopeik, director of risk communicationat the Harvard Center for RiskAnalysis. He was able to explain riskanalysis and inform the public aboutwhy they should not overreact to thedisease. His interview was among thefirst to send a calming message to thepublic.Ropeik explained that because SARSwas a new disease, members of thepress were focusing much attention onit. By doing this, the public’s perceptionof the risk it poses was increasingeven though other epidemics, such asinfluenza, were resulting in far moredeaths than SARS. Ropeik said thatpeople should take precautionary measures,but they should behave rationallyand not panic.China Features of Xinhua NewsAgency reported on many SARS storiesfor foreign media, such as Science,WPR, and Inter Press Service. This reportinghelped foreign readers get abetter sense of the real China duringand after the SARS crisis. Xiong Lei,managing editor of China Features,and her colleagues worked togetherwith Science reporter Martin Enserinkto cover the research on SARS in Chinaand reported how mainland Chineseresearchers missed the chance to bethe first in the world to announce findingsof the coronavirus—the real killerof SARS victims—because they werevery cautious and thought that by announcingit they would not be respectfulto other experts.In July 2003, the article “SARS isMaking a Change” was published in theWPR, and in it Xiong Lei described inblunt language the politics of silenceand change of bureaucratic mentalitythat has occurred during the SARS epidemic:“The dumping of these twoofficials [the mayor of Beijing and theminister of health], regarded as guiltyof holding back information relating tothe spread of the epidemic, is expectedto change China’s old bureaucraticmentality. Before, many governmentofficials would cover up anythingdeemed ‘negative,’ whether it was newsabout the collapse of a coal mine or acase of massive food poisoning …. SARShas shattered the philosophy amongsome bureaucrats that silence on negativetopics might sustain their power.”The Role of Western MediaIn its initial stages, the Western mediabeat its Chinese counterparts in reportingthe SARS crisis. However, someChinese media specialists have criticizedU.S. and other Western media’sexaggeration of the health crisis, claimingthe coverage focused too much onnegative aspects and mixed this medicalcrisis in with political issues. Just asthe two governments—China and theUnited States—hold different views onmany issues, the SARS crisis broughtsome of these differences to the surface.David Ropeik, who was a broadcastreporter for 22 years, explained thatone reason for this problem is that U.S.reporters tend to dramatize problemsand overplay controversy to attractreaders’ and viewers’ attention withheadline-making news. John Pomfret,Beijing bureau chief for The WashingtonPost, said that Ropeik’s viewpointhas some credence, but he does notfeel it’s the main reason. He arguesU.S. reporters regard a part of theirrole as serving as a watchdog—watchingwhat government does (anddoesn’t) do to inform and protect theinterests of the public. Erik Eckholm,who from 1998 to 2003 was Beijingbureau chief of The New York Times,agreed that some Western reporterstend by nature to give relatively morecoverage to crises, corruption andemerging problems in society. He explainedthat the U.S. media’s job is, inpart, to challenge and question every-92 Nieman Reports / Winter 2003